Local Goa News

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Panjim ­Mayor moves Lokayukta on Smart city and Amrut

PANJIM: The Panjim Mayor Surendra Furtado on Tuesday said he will approach the Lokayukta seeking a detail probe into the Central Government’s ambitious Smart City Development Mission and Amrut scheme for Panjim city, stating that project implementation is being done bypassing Central government guidelines.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday evening, Furtado said the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) is being sidelined while passing various projects under the Smart City Mission and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT). “The ruling panel and the Mayor has not been consulted on the AMRUT mission, while the Urban Secretary, GSIDC and City Commissioner are bypassing the corporation,” he said.
“Whereas the Central government guidelines on the project clearly states that the project implementation has to be in consultation with the urban local body. Even the Constitution of India, gives power to the civic body to be actively involved in the developmental projects,” Furtado said, adding “CCP has till date not

passed any resolution approving projects under AMRUT”.
Furtado said that he will be writing to the Goa Lokayukta complaining about how the local body is been sidelined in the important development projects while handling it over to Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC), which is now appointed as the Mission Directorate.
“I will expose GSIDC and these schemes soon. Will submit documents to Lokayukta,” Mayor said adding he has already petitioned Chief Secretary RK Srivastav to look into the matter.
In a letter to Chief Secretary, Furtado said that the last Corporation panel in November, 2015 approved in-principle clearance for preparation of State Level Proposal and State Annual Action Plan under AMRUT through GSIDC. However, the details of the projects to be taken up under this were not approved by the Corporation as required under the guidelines of AMRUT issued by Union Government.
“I had even brought this up during the state level technical committee meeting under chairmanship of Principal Secretary Urban development, however my point was not recorded,” he said.